TOKYO, Jan. 4 (Kyodo) - A Japanese Falun Gong follower said Friday he was deported from China after staging a protest Tuesday in Beijing's Tiananmen Square against the Chinese government's ban on the group.
Hiroyoshi Sawa, a 27-year-old company worker from Kyoto, said at a press conference in Tokyo that he was forced to return home Wednesday via Shanghai after being detained and assaulted by Chinese security authorities.
Sawa said he unfurled a banner saying, ''Falun Gong's teachings are good,'' and shouted the same slogan in Chinese at the square.
Security authorities then took him away for questioning and seized the books on Falun Gong he was carrying, Sawa said, adding he was questioned about his relationship with Chinese Falun Gong followers and detained overnight.
Sawa said he will continue his campaign to end persecution of the religious group's followers.
According to sources close to the group, there are several thousand Falun Gong followers in Japan. Sawa's case marks the fourth time Japanese were deported from China for staging a protest at Tiananmen Square, they said.
Falun Gong is a mixture of Taoist, Buddhist and folk religions that preaches good health and morality can be achieved through meditation and special exercises.
The group's open conflict with the Chinese government began in April 1999, when thousands of adherents peacefully surrounded Zhongnanhai, the home of China's ruling elite, in central Beijing.
Beijing has labeled Falun Gong an ''evil cult'' that destroys the lives of its followers, and outlawed it.